Margin – The amount paid by the customer when using a broker's credit to buy or sell a security. Under Federal Reserve regulations, the initial margin requirement since 1945 has ranged from the current rateof 50% of the purchase priceup to 100%

Sherlyl Sandberg Facebook COO Sells $7.44 Million in Stock

Sheryl Sandberg sold $7.44 million in shares as the company frees up more stock for trading following its initial publicoffering in May. Sandberg sold 339,512 shares at about $21.10 apiece on Oct. 31, the first trading day after the latestround of lock-up restrictions ended, a regulatory filing showed yesterday. She also sold 13,392 shares at $20.79 apiece, according to the document. The operator of the world’s largest social-networking service unlocked 229 million shares for trading this pastweek, the second of five insider-sale restrictions scheduled during Facebook’s first year as a public company. Current and former employees have seen the value of their equity compensation decline as the stock fell 44percent from the IPO price of $38. Shares in Facebook, basedin Menlo Park , California, were little changed yesterday at $21.18. Two lockups will expire for an additional 960 million shares by the end of the year, followed by one for 47.3 million in May 2013. Sandberg’s share sales were part of a trading plan adopted in July. Shehas about 20 million available shares for trading, part of her total holdings, Facebook said yesterday. Theodore Ullyot, general counsel, also sold 149,075shares, raising $3.13 million.

Unemployment rises to 7.9 percent; 171K jobs added

The U.S. economy added 171,000 new jobs in October and the unemployment rate inched up to 7.9 percent from last month's reading of 7.8 percent; August and September job creation totalswere revised higher by a total of 84,000, putting average monthly job creationthis year at 157,000, slightly ahead of the 2011 pace of 153,000. Despite the uptick in the jobless rate, economists said the latest data show that the labor market is improving. The number of employed adults relative to the broaderpopulation, a key measure ofthe job market's health, rose to 58.8 percent, its highestevel since August of 2009. The number of people seeking full-time positions who are forced to work part-time also fell by 269,000 jobs. In another sign of progress, more people are voluntarily quitting their jobs, suggesting that they have more confidence about their chances of finding a better job. "The October payroll survey showed a brighter picture of the labor market, both in faster headline job creation and in upward revisions to previous months," said NigelGault, chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight, in a statement. "There was good news in both construction and retail employment,

enu DBS Profit Rises 12%, Tops Estimates on Interest, Fee Income

DBS Group Holdings Ltd. (DBS) , Southeast Asia ’s largest bank, said third-quarter profit rose 12 percent, beating estimates as interest and fee income climbed. Net income advanced to S$856 million ($701 million) from S$762 million a year earlier, the company said in a stock exchange statement today. That exceeded the S$801 million average of eight analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. DBS boosted lending andmade smaller provisions for bad loans even as Singapore’s economy slowed. Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta is seeking to expand in faster-growing markets, which may help the bank weather waning demand from corporate borrowers and pressure on loan profitability as competitionfor deposits intensifies in the city-state. “The net profit number is ahead of expectations, butthe underlying drivers are probably not as exciting,” said Matthew Smith , an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities Singapore Pte. The gain “appears to be all coming from credit costs, which are very low,”said Smith, who rates DBS shares neutral

Peru's central bank tightens reserve requirements for fourth time this year

LIMA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Peru's central bank tightened reserve requirements on Tuesday to control high liquidity and a rapid credit expansion as low interest rates abroad have encouraged investments in Peru's emerging economy. The new rules, which go into effect November 1, raise reserve requirementson foreign and local currencies 0.75 percentage points, slightlymore than the 0.50 increase the bank put in place three times this year. "This measure seeks to preventatively act to moderate the rate of credit expansion at a time of high liquidity abroad and exceptionally low interest rates in international markets," thebank said in a statement. The local sol currency has been trading around its highest level in more than15 years as the central bank has been intervening in the local currency spot market daily to control its gains against the dollar. The monetary authority has held its benchmark interest rate at 4.25 percent for the past 17 months

Royal Bank of Scotland to Pay Fine to Settle Libor Investigations

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc , Britain’s biggest taxpayer-owned lender, said it expects to pay a fine in the coming months to settle regulators’ probes into allegations the lender tried to manipulate Libor. Whether the penalty exceeds the record 290 million pounds ($467 million) Barclays Plc paid in June or not “it will still be a miserable day in RBS’s history,” Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester told reporters on a call today as the bank posted third-quarter operating profit that beat analyst estimates. “I’d be disappointed if we were talking to you at our full-year results in February without having had more news.” RBS is one of more than a dozen banks worldwide facing regulatory probes into allegations that they manipulated the London interbank offered rate, thebenchmark for more than$300 trillion of securities. The Edinburgh-based lender has fired at least four traders following an internal probe, and last month suspended its head of rates trading for Europe and the Asia- Pacific region, the first senior manager to be put on leave. Libor is the biggest regulatory obstacle to overshadow Hester’s attempts to overhaul the company after it received the biggest banking bailout in history in 2008. RBS said today it would set aside a further 400 million pounds to compensate clients wrongly sold loan insurance and derivatives,bringing the total the bank has earmarked to 1.7billion pounds.

Thomas Cook (India),MasterCard to unveil Borderless Prepaid Card

Thomas Cook (India) has collaborated with US based MasterCard, to roll out a prepaid foreign exchange travel card named as Borderless Prepaid Card. The card facilitates travelers to load approximately eight currencies, including US Dollars, British Pounds, Euro, Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Swiss Francs, Singapore Dollars & Japanese Yen. Designed with an embedded chip and PIN forsecure transaction, the smart multi-currency card allows the travelers to spend the specific currency in the country, where they are visiting. According to a Consumer Segmentation study by MasterCard in July 2011, India recorded 514 points on the International Travel Index, which indicated that 36.7% affluent Indians want to go aboard for a holiday. Thomas Cook delivers a variety of services such as Foreign Exchange, CorporateTravel, MICE, Leisure Travel, Insurance, Visa & Passport services and E-Business. Trading in more than 210 geographies, MasterCard manages the world's fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses.

SMFG to acquire 9.9% stake in Bank ofEast Asia

Japan based Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation are set to acquireup to 9.9% of the shares of Hong Kong based Bank of East Asia (BEA). Acquisition in the bank, which has also been approved by the US Federal Reserve System, is a part of Sumitomo Mitsui's strategy toboost its presence in Beijing, as reported by The Financial Times. The banking group already held 4.5% stake in the HongKong based bank and the increase in percent of the voting shares will not enablethem to exercise a controlling influence over BEA or any of its subsidiaries. Japanese banks are trying to recover from the effect of natural disaster, which struckthe country last year by strengthening their presenceand streamlining their operations in other Asian countries. Bank of East Asia had Rmb1.3bn in net profit and assets of Rmb153bn ($24.5bn) as of the end of 2011, according to KPMG. Bank of China currently holds a small stake in BEA, which recently sold its Canadian and US branches to ICBC. The Hong Kong bank engages primarily in retail and commercial banking, wealth management, and insurance services in People's Republic of China, North America, the UK, and Southeast Asia.

Chevron profit drops on lower oil output, maintenance

(Reuters) - Chevron Corp posted a 33 percent drop in quarterly earnings as maintenance exacerbated a steady decline in output from oil and natural gas wells over the past year and as a huge fire at one of the company's California plants hit the refining business. The second-largest U.S. oil company said on Friday that third-quarter net income had fallen to $5.25 billion, or$2.69 per share, from $7.83 billion, or $3.92 per share, a year earlier. Increasing output has been astruggle for many big oil companies , including Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc . With oil and gas assets tightly controlled by the countries where they arelocated, the majors are left todrill in pricier regions on land and offshore. Chevron's third-quarter oil and gas production fell to 2.52 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 2.60million bpd a year earlier. On quarter-to-quarter basis, the production number fell for the third period in a row. Earnings dropped 17 percent to $5.1 billion in the oil and gas production business and plunged 65 percent to $689 million in the refining, or downstream, operation. " Crude oil prices were down, and we had a heavy period of planned oil field maintenance which temporarily reduced oil and gas production in several locations," Chief Executive Officer John Watson said in astatement. A storm cut into Gulf of Mexico production, while planned maintenance in Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom caused the majorityof the decline in production outside the United States, Chevron has said. The company had already warned last month that the crude unit at its oldest refinery in Richmond, California, would remain offline through the fourth quarter after it was badly damaged in an August 6 fire. Shares of Chevron were down 0.6 percent at $110.75in trading before the market opened.

Income bond

Income bond – Generally income bonds promise to repay principal but to pay interest only when earned. In some cases unpaid interest on an income bond may accumulate as a claim against the corporation whenthe bond becomes due. An income bond may also be issued in lieu of preferred stock